Get ready for the I-5 blues

It's not too early to begin planning alternative routes

LARRY LANG, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By LARRY LANGE, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, July 19, 2007

Vehicles move south on I-5 and the Columbian Way South exit. Starting Aug. 10, crews will close two to three of I-5's northbound five lanes between Spokane Street and I-90.
Photo: Andy Rogers/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

While some steps are being taken to ease congestion, there will be no complete escape when lanes on northbound Interstate 5 between Spokane Street and Interstate 90 close for 19 days next month for repaving and replacing worn-out joints.

Underused buses might offer a smoother commute -- if there are any around at rush hour; Metro Transit officials said it won't be able to add any buses.

Detours have been arranged for drivers on side streets, where traffic lights have been retimed to let more traffic through. But increased congestion is expected on detours as many of the nearly 130,000 vehicles that use the I-5 segment reroute.

And while officials estimate that drivers will find alternative routes and the congestion won't be that extreme, if they don't, backups could stretch from Seattle to Tacoma.

The state wants the job done quickly so I-5 is usable when initial work begins next year to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. There was no way to keep more lanes open and allow crews to work safely, state officials said, or to spread it over nights and weekends and get the work done before fall rains begin.

Initially, up to two lanes at a time between Spokane Street and I-90 will be closed, then three lanes toward the end of the job during the work -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"In terms of the impact to traffic, this is going to be the biggest," said state transportation spokeswoman Jamie Holter of the $15.5 million project. "There isn't a place in the state where you have that many vehicles on the road."

The state will start tearing out old expansion joints Aug. 10 and continue through Aug. 29. The old joints, which have deteriorated, will be removed from the ends of freeway bridge segments with torches before new joints and reinforcing are installed. Once that's done, Concrete Barrier Inc. crews will repave the one-mile stretch, one lane at a time.

"It's a pretty labor-intensive operation," said state consultant Paul Johnson.

But some measures should help relieve stress, officials said.

The car pool lane in the center of the freeway, normally reserved for vehicles carrying two or more, will open to all traffic. One lane of Airport Way South also will be reserved for trucks and buses to help that traffic bypass the work, and a traffic signal will be added.

Northbound onramps from West Seattle and Spokane Street will close the first two weekends, reopen the third and remain open during the week.

Anticipating delays on northbound buses to Seattle, more Sound Transit buses will be added to keep the return departures on schedule.

Signals on First and Fourth avenues will be reset to accommodate slower northbound traffic speeds during the morning commute. However, this could delay drivers trying to enter or cross First or Fourth.

In addition to Seattle's First and Fourth avenues, alternative routes including surface Alaskan Way, state Route 99 and the Alaskan Way Viaduct are recommended. Beacon and Rainier avenues and 23rd Avenue South toward Capitol Hill and the University of Washington also will bypass the I-5 work. Martin Luther King Jr. Way South is harder to navigate since Sound Transit rail construction work is still under way.

State Route 509 from south of Sea-Tac Airport into Seattle crosses the Duwamish River, where the drawbridge won't be opened during rush hours, and connects to East Marginal Way (state Route 599), then First Avenue. Interstate 405 also is a usable bypass during some off-peak times, though it's normally jammed during rush hour.

The Columbian Way onramp will close. The offramps from the West Seattle interchange will close for one night but will open during the rest of the construction period, allowing drivers to exit south of the work and get to other, parallel streets.

But despite planning and alternatives, there'll be plenty of complications. Even with diversion measures, "there's still going to be congestion caused by the project and lack of lanes on I-5, no doubt," consultant Johnson said.

Twenty-one Metro buses and seven Sound Transit buses that normally use I-5 will be rerouted. And Metro doesn't plan to add any service during the construction work.

Metro has reduced the price of van pools to $45 per person for the month, just over half the usual monthly average cost, and will temporarily eliminate bookkeeping and driver-orientation requirements in August to get more people into the pools and off the freeway.

But "we're maxed out on buses," said Metro service planner Jack Lattemann. He said there should be some space on some buses, but couldn't estimate how much; some coaches will be slowed by traffic and by picking up an increased number of passengers.

Officials are urging commuters to take even more steps, in addition to taking buses: working from home, riding Sound Transit Sounder trains operating between Seattle and Tacoma, and forming car pools.

"People do make adjustments not only to their routes but also their schedules for that period of time," said Seattle traffic management director Wayne Wentz. "Maybe that's counting on the goodness of the people of the Pacific Northwest to not make the problem as bad as it otherwise could be."